The Brontës are NOT only for girls

The Sikh Times is already warming up for June 9, when Tamasha and their take on Wuthering Heights arrive in Coventry.

The scorched desert landscape of Rajasthan is the setting for an evocative new musical interpretation of Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë’s timeless tale of passion, jealousy and revenge, which runs at the Belgrade Theatre from 9 – 13 June.
1770s Rajasthan, with its rigid social hierarchy, inequality of wealth and Victorian influences, is an ideal location for this classic story of passion corrupted by prevailing social values. In place of the cold moors, the wild scorched expanse of the desert provides a symbolic setting for the doomed love affair of Shakuntala and Krishan (Cathy and Heathcliff from the original novel).
“A stunning take on Wuthering Heights… the show looks gorgeous…Youkti Patel is a Bollywood-standard beauty” The Sunday Times
Tamasha’s version of Wuthering Heights retains the dark and brooding atmosphere of the original novel, whilst seeking to create a fresh musical style with a fusion between a Bollywood cinematic treatment and other more classical elements of a western musical. Wuthering Heights follows Tamasha’s previous large-scale populist productions, Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings and a Funeral and Strictly Dandia.
Director Kristine Landon-Smith, co-founder and artistic director of Tamasha, directed Bollywood musical: Fourteen Songs Two Weddings and A Funeral for the company. As an adaptation of the blockbuster Hum Aapke Hein Koun, this was a direct transfer of the original film to stage in English. Kristine’s recent credits include Sweet Cider (Arcola), A Fine Balance (Hampstead and UK tour), The Trouble With Asian Men (artsdepot and UK tours).
“Could surely transfer to the big screen with the same success as Tamasha's East is East" The Independent
Writer Deepak Verma has previously worked with Tamasha on his play Ghostdancing (Lyric Hammersmith, also directed by Kristine Landon-Smith) which was based on Zola’s Thérèse Raquin and translated to an Indian setting. He is additionally known for his long-running role as Sanjay in EastEnders.
Wuthering Heights, designer Sue Mayes travelled to Rajasthan in 2008 to research the set and costumes. Inspired by her trip, the design includes the scorched desert, a sumptuous palace and a camel racecourse! The creative team has also looked at the history of Indian cinema and used many classic films as reference, including Madhumati (1958) with its brooding landscapes, the brutality of Mother India (1957) which mixes folkloric music and culture with original composition, Devdas (1955) which examines caste hierarchies in a black and white epic narrative and the more recent colourful blockbuster, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999).
Music for the show, composed by Felix Cross and Sheema Mukherjee, reflects the epic nature of the story and landscape with a score that combines original composition and authentic Rajasthani folkloric music. Felix Cross is Artistic Director of Nitro and his extensive theatre credits include the music for Tamasha’s Ghostdancing and A Fine Balance. Sheema Mukherjee brings her blend of Western tradition and Indian classical music. Previously she has collaborated with Natacha Atlas, Transglobal Underground, Noel Gallagher, Cornershop and Courtney Pine. In Wuthering Heights eleven actors will sing in lip-synch to a pre-recorded score, which has been performed and recorded by a team of classically-trained musicians in Bangalore and vocalists in London. Musical Supervisor is John Rigby who has worked with many of the UK’s leading orchestras and on some of the West End’s biggest musicals. Co-arranger Chandru is a renowned violinist and arranger who has previously worked with George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, Bjork, Nitin Sawnhey and The Cure.
Choreography is by Nikki Woollaston (recent credits include West End musical Marguerite and ENO’s Kismet). The cast includes Pushpinder Chani as Krishan and newcomer Youkti Patel as Shakuntala.
Tickets are available now from the box office on 024 7655 3055 or via www.belgrade.co.uk, priced from £9.30 to £18.11.

Stage news comes also from Barry's Bay This Week about Murder by the Book, a play in two-acts presented by Madawaska Valley District High School last Thursday night.

When the Raven Society meets on an isolated island to determine the best mystery book of the year, little do the members realize that their own lives are in jeopardy. Membership in the society is secret: each person comes disguised as a famous author and is known only in that persona. When the group receives a letter declaring each member will die by their own words, the authors must determine who the murderer is before it’s too late.
This is the premise of “Murder By The Book,” a two-act play brought to life on the stage at Madawaska Valley District High School Thursday night. The authors were famous indeed: Agatha Christie (Kim Fehr), Edgar Allan Poe (Jacob Harron), Mary Shelley (Katherine Benkhe), William Shakespeare (Nathaniel Wildsmith Chappell), Mark Twain (Jordan Fehr), Louisa May Alcott (Joan Thompson), Charlotte Bronte (Amber Morrison), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Tylor Eleser) and Emily Dickinson (Melynda Marco). The only other person at the meeting is housekeeper Violia Danglon (Yasmin Fakli). (Heather Kendall)

On a not-so-unrelated note, the Boston Globe reviews composer John Williams's world premiere Concerto for Viola and Orchestra last night. Apart from that premiere, some of his soundtracks were also played.

And Williams's Suite from Jane Eyre gave the strings a chance to shine, especially in the second movement, when the conductor emeritus held up a finger to the violins to keep them sawing away while he leaned in the other direction to give close attention to the cellos. (Joel Brown)

John Williams wrote the beautiful score of Jane Eyre 1970.

Author Margaret Blake reveals she's a true Brontëite in an interview by the Dallas Examiner.

If you could only have one book to read for the rest of your life, which book would you choose?
That’s a hard question, I love so many books but if you insist on one, then it would have to be Wuthering Heights. It has everything. It is the perfect book, with so much passion and hatred. The characters are unforgettable. I remember reading it as a teenager. I read it in one session, I could not even eat.
Which story do you wish you had thought of first?
I would love to have written Jane Eyre, the ultimate romance. To have been the first to have written that book – it has everything: romance, mystery, suspense and passion. (Erin Russell)

And we would like to add that it has even more things. Because we are still trapped in that Jane-Eyre-is-only-for-girls sort of thing, as evinced by this article in the Sequim Gazette.

When recommending books for girls, [Sequim Middle School librarian Jo Chinn] says “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte is a top choice. For boys, Chinn has read every sports book in the library to better recommend titles. (Matthew Nash)

We are very sorry to say this, but that is one certain way of not expanding children's horizons. As we have seen, shown and repeated here on BrontëBlog time and time again a good many boys like Jane Eyre. And if more boys/men don't appreciate or even read the novel is because it's constantly being tagged 'for girls'. Men in the Brontës' times were shocked by Jane Eyre and even found it 'coarse'.

Then things like this happen:

In all, Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt has 731 customer reviews [on Amazon] as of today. To contrast, there are only 572 reviews for “Wuthering Heights.” (Kevin Wilson from Freedom New Mexico)

If Wuthering Heights is marketed 'for girls only' then that is not surprising: a classic book will have less reviews than a T-shirt.

The Times continues suggesting getaways, such as the five best canal holiday routes:

LEEDS-LIVERPOOL CANAL
Running across the Pennines, this waterway has some steep flights of locks but re-pays the work involved with glorious scenery.
Running between the two cities of its name, this canal is the longest in Britain, so holidaymakers tend to pick a section to explore. Perhaps the best plan is to start from Skipton, “Gateway to the Yorkshire Dales”, You can head east through the Bronte Country around Keighley and on to Bingley. Or west through rugged Dales scenery to Barnoldswick. (Terry Ramsey)

A couple of blogs today: Ramblings & Writings reviews Jillian Dare and Margaret Muir posts briefly about Pilot.

Categories: Brontëites, Haworth, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, Theatre, Weirdo, Wuthering Heights